Primary school running costs

Summary

The requester asked for 2016/17 expenditure and pupil numbers for all Isle of Man primary schools, but the Department of Education refused to send the data directly.

Key Facts

• The request was refused under Section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act as the information is accessible by other means.
• Expenditure data is available via the Treasury's financial reporting portal.
• School roll data has already been published by the Department in specific PDF reports.
• The response was issued by Chief Executive Officer Ronald Barr on 2017-12-04.
• The requester was informed of their right to an internal review or appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Data Disclosed

• £306,039.19
• 2016/17
• 2017-12-02
• 2017-12-04
• IM112326I
• IM92848I

Exemptions Cited

• Section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act (Information accessible to applicant by other means)

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Dear

Re: Freedom of Information Request – Reference Number IM112326I

Your Request:-

In your response to IM92848I you said Department expenditure for St Thomas's Primary School for the year 2016/17 was £306,039.19. For the same year please provide figures showing the Department's expenditure for every other primary school on the Island.

For the same year please also indicate the number of pupils that attended each primary school.

Department Response:-

Primary School expenditure - While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance your request for information on the Department’s expenditure for the Island’s primary schools is refused as an absolute exemption applies under section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act (Information accessible to applicant by other means).

This is because the requested information is already accessible to you in the detailed revenue reports available via Treasury’s financial reporting portal, at:-

http://financereports.gov.im/DetailedRevenueReport.mth

Advice and assistance

In order to be of assistance to you, the following instructions will enable you to find the information you are seeking:-

 Click the ‘detailed revenue report’ tab  Select the start and end dates of the periods you are interested in  Click Department of Education & Children in the Cost Centre column  Click Primary Education to view a breakdown of expenditure on Primary Schools

School roll data - In response to the second part of your request, this is also being refused on similar grounds to part one of your request above, however in this case the information has already been published by the Department.
Department of Education Sport and Culture

Rheynn Ynsee, Spoyrt as Cultoor Chief Executive Officer Ronald Barr

Department of Education, Sport and Culture Hamilton House Peel Road Douglas IM1 5EZ

To be of assistance to you, this information can be found at found at:-

https://www.gov.im/media/1355242/dec foi pupil-and-staffing-numbers.pdf, and

https://www.gov.im/media/1358401/permanent-capacity-figures-for-all-schools-on-the- isle-of-man-projected-figures-for-2017-2018.pdf, and

https://www.gov.im/media/1356108/schools-nor-with-capacity-sep-2017v2.pdf

The information provided within this response letter will also be published on the Government website in due course should you wish to revisit the information.

If you are unhappy with this response to your Freedom of Information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a Review/Complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post to:

Mr Andrew Shipley, Legal and Administration Manager, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5EZ.

An electronic version of our Review/Complaint form can be found by going to https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of-information/

Your Review/Complaint request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been conducted.

Appeal Process

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on;

1

Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act; or 2

Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision.

More detailed information on your rights to review is on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://www.inforights.im/contact-us/

Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Further information about Freedom of Information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi

Yours sincerely